[Plugin] 2D Tools

ntxdave

I am having a problem with setting the Alignment for the 2D Text Tool. The only thing that seems to work is Center. It appears that maybe the ]" at the end of the work Right and the "[ at the beginning of the work Left are causing a problem.

If I try to right align text, it goes through the dialog just fine but does not create anything.

Also, on the Line Style, how do I create my own custom line style?

I am running SU 2014 on Windows 8.1

TIG

@ntxdave said:

I am having a problem with setting the Alignment for the 2D Text Tool. The only thing that seems to work is Center. It appears that maybe the ]" at the end of the work Right and the "[ at the beginning of the work Left are causing a problem.
If I try to right align text, it goes through the dialog just fine but does not create anything.
Also, on the Line Style, how do I create my own custom line style?
I am running SU 2014 on Windows 8.1
Remember that the 'alignment' of 2d text [which is what 2d text is - just no extrusion and editable...] does NOT place the text-component's insertion point in different places, it's always bottom-left: the alignment affects how multi-line text is formatted - 'left' and the lines of text align to the left 'margin', right the lines of text align to the right 'margin', and 'center' will center the lines of text. You can of course alter the axes [aka insertion-point] of any component by selecting an instance and using the context-menu item to change it.

BUT now I do have a suspicion about some Ruby v2014 compatibility error [your report of the ][ brackets] - watch for the update

The custom LineStyle is explained in the 2d Help docs...
Activate the LineStyle tool, right-click in empty space to call up the settings dialog, choose '<Custom Style>' from the end - in the next dialog enter a string - It must consist of <space> . (dot) only. Repeat it with a trailing <space(s)> to suit your needs...
It is named thus 'MyStyle~.... .... '
The custom-pattern is saved with the model...

However, the LineStyle dialog suffers from the same ][ brackets issue - I fix that too...

Watch for the update shortly...

TIG

A update [v6.2] is available in the PluginStore.
http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=2Dtools
it fixes some v2014 glitches with some drop-down lists in dialogs for 2dText & 2dLineStyle.

ntxdave

@tig said:

@ntxdave said:

I am having a problem with setting the Alignment for the 2D Text Tool. The only thing that seems to work is Center. It appears that maybe the ]" at the end of the work Right and the "[ at the beginning of the work Left are causing a problem.
If I try to right align text, it goes through the dialog just fine but does not create anything.
Also, on the Line Style, how do I create my own custom line style?
I am running SU 2014 on Windows 8.1
Remember that the 'alignment' of 2d text [which is what 2d text is - just no extrusion and editable...] does NOT place the text-component's insertion point in different places, it's always bottom-left: the alignment affects how multi-line text is formatted - 'left' and the lines of text align to the left 'margin', right the lines of text align to the right 'margin', and 'center' will center the lines of text. You can of course alter the axes [aka insertion-point] of any component by selecting an instance and using the context-menu item to change it.

Thanks for the reply. Clearly my fault. I some how missed the comment about applying to multi line text.

ntxdave

@tig said:

A update [v6.2] is available in the PluginStore.
http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=2Dtools
it fixes some v2014 glitches with some drop-down lists in dialogs for 2dText & 2dLineStyle.

I updated to this version and yes the drop down lists work much smoother.

However, I am still seeing the brackets on the tools and when I select <custom style> for the line style tool, I do not get the window to draw my style.

TIG

You don't 'draw it', you input it as spaces and dots in a second dialog...
It worked for me...
Something is up with the PluginStore version - it's not updated...

I'll updated again please retry it in a moment...

ntxdave

@tig said:

You don't 'draw it', you input it as spaces and dots in a second dialog...
It worked for me...
Something is up with the PluginStore version - it's not updated...

I'll updated again please retry it in a moment...

Bad wording on my part.....I understand what you are saying about entering it. I just do not get the dialog box. Are dots/periods the only characters I can use in my style?

BTW: On the text tool with multi line text, it shows centered but the text was right aligned. I could not get left to work though.

Probably something about the Ruby 2.0 that may be causing some conflict. I really am using the tool a lot though and liking it. The only other thing I see is that if I apply a line style to a curve, it does not repeat the line pattern but I found a way to work with that

As I said, I like the tool and it is very useful for me. Now I need to figure out how to draw a regular line thicker and add an arrow head. Right now I go to LayOut to accomplish that.

TIG

http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=2Dtools
Is v6.3
Hopefully this will work...
Feedback welcome.............

ntxdave

@tig said:

http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=2Dtools
Is v6.3
Hopefully this will work...
Feedback welcome.............

Great job...all seems to be working well.

Now another question - is it possible to allow characters other than a . and a space?

The only place where I see any problem is when I apply a line style to a Fillet. I am attaching a file that will display show what I am talking about.

TIG-2D Test.skp

TIG

No.
The <space> is the 'gap'.
The 'dot' is the 'solid'.
.. .. makes the solid twice as long as the gap.
. . makes the gap twice as long as the solid.
How else could you use another character.
The LineStyles all consist of gaps and solids.
The length of the gaps/solids is proportional to the line 'width'...

A 'curve' is treated as a number of separate line segments.
If a line segment is very short compared the the styled 'width' then it will all be single solid - made from the first . and perhaps even shortened from a full 'dot' !

You could manually delete every other styled-element to make the dots around a curve

The reason your 2d Text right aligned etc looks slightly odd is that you have a space with the newline \n, this shunts the words over by a space - don't end or start with a start next to the \n.
"THIS\nIS HOW\nTO DO IT"
But
"THIS \n IS NOT HOW\n TO DO IT"
depending on the alignment used...

ntxdave

@tig said:

No.
The <space> is the 'gap'.
The 'dot' is the 'solid'.
.. .. makes the solid twice as long as the gap.
. . makes the gap twice as long as the solid.
How else could you use another character.
The LineStyles all consist of gaps and solids.
The length of the gaps/solids is proportional to the line 'width'...

You could manually delete every other styled-element to make the dots around a curve

The reason your 2d Text right aligned etc looks slightly odd is that you have a space with the newline \n, this shunts the words over by a space - don't end or start with a start next to the \n.
"THIS\nIS HOW\nTO DO IT"
But
"THIS \n IS NOT HOW\n TO DO IT"
depending on the alignment used...

OK - I understand. I was thinking about using characters like " - _ = + *" to build different patterns for different situations.

Yes, on my drawings, I deleted some of the style-elements on the curves and it came out pretty good. Kind of depends on how "sharp" the curve is.

Yes, I did put that space in there. I thought I had done it without the space and it did not work. Do not know what happened then. I just tried it and it worked just fine.

I highly recommend this tool.

Seems like almost every day I find another use for it.

Clayton49

To all,

I recently downloaded this PLUG-IN & can confirm it works o.k. with SU-Pro-2014.

**** DASHED LINES---DASHED LINES---DASHED LINES ****

.....and only just discovered.....
you can draw dashed lines & custom these as well...

Over & out,
Clayton.

kupono

Can't get the 2D Line Style tool to display a settings dialog in SU Pro 2015. I removed all 2D folders and plugins then reinstalled - same thing.

Dave R

It works fine for me. The dialog box pops up when I right click in empty space just as the hint at the bottom directs.

kupono

That's interesting, it's now working. Go figure.

Thx

sketchydog

@thomthom said:

:?:

TIG-
Have enjoyed using 2D Tools, and especially the linestyle tool, for generating property lines, etc.
Some comments:

first of all, have been running it fine on SU 2015. Today, I attempted a few Custom Styles, and now I am stuck with the most recent Custom Style, and right clicking in empty space no longer gets me a menu. I went back to a saved version of the file a couple of hours earlier, before I attempted the Custom Style, and 2D tools works fine. It's apparently only in THIS file that it will not work. I have run Cleanup. I have done a SaveAs to another name. No good. Apparently this file is not going to run 2D Tools Line Style again. What happened?

Also- a couple of other comments:

It's strange how, for the color options, we get a huge pallete of colors...and I'm not sure where they come from...but they change...and frequently I'll go back for "Goldenrod" or some other color, and it's not on the list anymore! The list appears to be a selection in the middle of a greater range of colors. In other words, soehow I sense that there are colors above and below the menu but cannot get to them.
Would be very good to get widths greater than 144.
Would be good to have some sort of way to handle curves. It's strange when a property line "goes solid" for a short segment or a curved segment.

Thanks!

TIG

@Joseph

To get the settings dialog to open you need to right-click in 'empty-space'.
If there is any object, like a large face-plane, below the cursor you will get the context-menu instead.
If necessary orbit so you are looking at the 'empty sky' or well to one side of any existing geometry.

The color options should include a sorted list of all of all existing Materials and the built-in SketchUp colors [which include 'Goldenrod'].
Type/copy+paste this into the Ruby Console to see all of the colors...
Sketchup::Color.names.sort.each{|e|puts e};puts
The list is often longer than the height of the screen, so to navigate further down type the first letter of the color - like 'W' for 'White' - this jumps down to the first 'W' is 'Wheat', use the up/down arrows to step through the list to 'White' [this is explained in the Help pages].

You can customize the line of widths to exclude or include whatever you like: the default 'inch' set is available in the file ../Plugins/2DTools/2DlinestyleTool.rb.
You can edit that file using Notepad.exe or an equivalent plain-text editor like Notepad++ or TextWrangler[MAC] [but NOT a wordprocessor].
Line #103 says:
widths="0.05|0.1|0.2|0.25|0.5|0.75|1.0|1.5|2.0|3.0|4.0|5.0|6.0|8.0|9.0|10|12|18|20|24|25|36|48|50|60|72|75|84|96|100|108|120|132|144"
Simply delete unwanted entries or add new ones as desired, each width needs to be separated by a '|'; so e.g. if you don't want 132" delete it, and if you want 200" add it on the end as ...|108|120**|**144**|200**"
Save your changes and restart Sketchup to load the new setup...
There is also a separate 'metric' [mm] list, just below that on laine #105, so if you use mm and want to adjust that list's contents you can edit that too.

Since SketchUp's Curves are made from segments of edges any styling applies to those edges, so the styling will appear in those pieces - it would be possible, BUT very convoluted, to get a different result...

dlp

I trying to add text to surfaces on my model using the 2D text tool but I get the spinning beach ball (Mac 10.8.5) for 10-20 seconds before it places the text. I am using Sketchup Pro 2015.3.329. Any ideas why?

TIG

Have you upgraded to MAC OS 'Yosemite' recently?
That has had some ttf 3dText-font issues [also used by 2dText via the API]...
Do it occur with all fonts ?
How does the native 3dText tool compare ?
From what you say I assume it is placing the expected text - albeit after some seconds delay...
Does the Editing work the same way ?
If you run 2dText with the Ruby Console open do you see any error messages ?
Have you adjusted your installed fonts away from the standard list ?
Have you adjusted the 2dTools/Fonts.txt list ?
Are all of those fonts listed still available on your MAC ?

driven

@tig said:

Are all of those fonts listed still available on your MAC ?

NO...
the missing ones cause a 'reference to deleted' error...
the SU 'font issue' was with v2013/4 on Yosemite...

I tend to check what is there with...

fontname = 'Arial Bold Italic.ttf'
%x(mdfind -onlyin /Library/Fonts 'kMDItemKind  == "TrueType font" && kMDItemDisplayName  == "#{fontname}"')
/Library/Fonts/Arial Bold Italic.ttf

john